First-time demonstrations, announcements, certified packaging and other displays of broad industry support of Universal Serial Bus 2.0 are highlighted this week at Intel Developer Forum, Spring 2002, in San Francisco. "Not even two full months into what the USB Implementers Forum is dubbing 'The Year of USB 2.0,' the technology has already seen its share of major milestones in 2002," said Jason Ziller, chairman of the USB-IF and Intel technology initiatives manager. Milestones include the launch of initial PCs and laptops with USB 2.0 as a baseline feature, availability of USB 2.0 drivers for Microsoft Windows XP* and Intel's debut of two USB 2.0-supporting desktop boards with the company's first USB 2.0-integrated chipsets on the horizon. In all, more than 100 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 products have been launched in the past year. USB 2.0 - dubbed "Hi-Speed USB 2.0" in the marketplace by the USB-IF - increases the speed of the peripheral to PC connection from 12 Mbps on USB 1.1 to up to 480 Mbps on USB 2.0, or 40 times faster. The higher bandwidth is a major boost for such external peripherals as CD/DVD burners, scanners, cameras and hard drives.

Microsoft Corp. has made USB 2.0 support available to OEMs and system builders, allowing PC manufacturers to ship Windows XP*-based systems with the drivers loaded going out the door. In addition, USB 2.0 support to Windows XP users is now available via Windows Update, enabling higher-speed and simple connectivity to a wide range of peripheral devices from cameras to music devices to storage devices and more. "Microsoft is fully committed to supporting the latest technologies and services on the Windows platform, and has worked to develop driver support for USB 2.0 since its inception," said Stacey M. Breyfogle, Microsoft group program manager for Windows Hardware Platform Strategy. "Our recent release of USB 2.0 drivers for Windows XP to our OEM partners and on Windows Update is a huge step forward in enabling our customers to easily connect high-speed USB devices to their PCs for exciting new functionality and usages."